


Tea Time

by MikeWritesThings



Series: 31 Days of Apex [3]
Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Insomnia, Talking, Tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:21:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25152301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MikeWritesThings/pseuds/MikeWritesThings
Summary: Ajay can't heal everything, but she can try.
Relationships: Lifeline | Ajay Che & Wraith | Renee Blasey
Series: 31 Days of Apex [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1813147
Comments: 3
Kudos: 26





	Tea Time

**Author's Note:**

> day 8--healing

Ajay liked sleeping. She wasn’t no Silva, who stayed up for days on end doing whatever he pleased before he passed out unceremoniously in a corner, nor was she Crypto, who stayed up for _reasons._ Paranoia, probably, but she wouldn’t pretend to know him.

No, she liked sleeping. Had cute pajamas, a sleeping mask, comfy pillows. Everything one needed to get a full night’s rest, because she deserved it, with the stuff she put up with. But sometimes, all of the fluffiest pillows and comforters in the world couldn’t put you to sleep—she'd been lyiing awake for three hours, so she got up for a quick remedy. Nothing special, just lavender tea with milk and honey, like her mama used to make.

She didn’t like to think about her parents, but it was about two in the morning, so she couldn’t help it. The blockades she put up in her mind to temporarily deal with it were down, and she was thinking of the way her mama used to run her hand through her hair when she couldn’t sleep, the sensations lulling her eyes closed. She was so deep in thought that she passed right by Wraith, sitting at the counter silently, and she only noticed her when she had opened up the cabinet to take out the honey.

“Well, good mornin’,” Ajay said, not very surprised as she put a pot of water on the stove. Wraith’s mouth thinned into a line as she glanced up, not saying anything. That was fair—she wasn’t very talkative in the first place, and they weren’t exactly friends. Good colleagues, enough to respect each other in the Games, but not enough to sit around and gossip like school girls. That was what Silva and Witt were for.

Status of relationship aside, though, Ajay was nothing if not polite, so when she opened up another cabinet she threw a glance back at Wraith and asked, “Tea?”

There was a pause, and Ajay wasn’t sure if she had heard her or not, with how long it went on. Finally though, the woman's pale eyes drifted up to meet hers, and she said, “Please.”

Ajay nodded, humming quietly to herself as she took out two glasses. This place didn’t have any actual teacups, which was fine, but she did miss them. Hadn’t had a set since she left home. She crossed the kitchen to the fridge, taking out some almond milk that wasn’t hers, but she knew Makoa wouldn’t mind. She paused, before turning to look at the older woman still sitting at the counter. 

“Milk and honey okay?”

“However you make it is fine,” Wraith said, flipping her kunai lightly between her fingers, but in a much more careful manner than Silva did. It was almost absentminded.

She set the milk and honey on top of the counter, and didn’t have anything else to do to procrastinate, so she sighed to herself and sat next to Wraith, smiling at her tiredly. It had been a long day, for a lotta reasons—Games, injuries, the ever-nagging question of _is this right?_ playing in the back of her mind like a broken record. She had experience in tuning things (or certain _people_ ) out, so she was usually able to ignore it, but today, it nagged and it nagged and nagged, and she couldn’t sleep because of it, so here she was.

She felt like she didn’t really need to ask Wraith why she was awake, assuming she already knew the answer, and the woman wouldn’t be willing to tell her anyway—but, despite not wanting to admit it, she did have a few things in common with Silva, and that was a hatred for sitting in silence too long. So she asked, “Can’t sleep?”

“I never can,” came Wraith’s reply, deadpan. She then turned her head a little, but her eyes were fixed on a point in the distance. “...But you know that.”

Ajay threw her hands up, admitting, “Just makin’ small talk, ghost.”

Wraith stared at her then, brows pinched. She always looked so serious, and Ajay wouldn’t be surprised if there was soon a wrinkle in her forehead from how often her face looked like that.

“Your water’s boiling,” Wraith suddenly said, and Ajay got back to her feet to take the pot off the stove. She added the tea leaves, and though she usually liked her tea strong, decided she wouldn’t brew it as long, since she didn’t know Wraith’s preferences.

As she waited, something nagged at her—the need to help. She didn’t know everything wrong with Wraith—who did? Girl didn’t open up to anybody, but she had some guesses. Some ideas of what might help, of what she could do to make things a little bit better for the other woman, but she didn’t want to overstep any boundaries, and Wraith had many.

She watched her out of the corner of her eye, taking in her appearance—the shadows beneath her milky blue eyes, the gauntness in her cheeks, the way her head was starting to tilt listlessly, like she found it a chore to even hold it up. Ajay couldn’t help it. She blurted out,

“You know, meditatin’ used to help me back in high school. Could never sleep back then. Too many tests to get into med school, but meditation helped.”

Wraith didn’t say anything, but she did look at her, to show she was listening. Ajay kept talking as she started to strain the tea, hands moving easily through the motions, having done it hundreds of times before. She gave both glasses an equal amount of tea before taking the cap off the milk, giving herself a good amount, and Wraith slightly less, in case she didn’t like hers too sweet.

 _Pour the milk gently, Ajay,_ her mama’s voice guided her gently. _Don’t make a mess._

She closed her eyes, pausing in her speech. She didn’t want to think about her mother, fought back the memories with her tired, two A.M. will, before putting the milk back in the fridge and uncapping the honey. She wasn’t even sure if Wraith was listening to all of her sleeping tips, but she was helping. She was _trying._

Ajay carried both glasses over, careful, because they were hot and heated beneath her fingertips, and set them gently on the counter. She slid back into the seat next to Wraith, going silent, having run out of things to say. She wasn’t even sure if the other woman was listening to her at this point, so she blew quietly on her tea before taking a sip.

Finally, Wraith lifted her own tea to her lips, took a sip, and then said, “I appreciate it. But you can’t heal what I have.”

Ajay almost took it personally, this particular comment—a jab at her role as a healer, a jab at the way she was trying to help, but she told herself that Wraith didn’t mean it maliciously. She wasn’t like that. Just blunt. So she decided to be blunt, too.

“I know that. But I can try,” Ajay said, and took another sip from her tea. She had forgotten to blow this time, and scalded her tongue in the process, but she acted like it was fine. “Better to offer somethin’ than nothin’.”

“That’s very altruistic of you,” Wraith said, and unlike when others had said the same thing of her, Ajay felt like she was being genuine. Her help had often gotten called ‘nagging’, and she understood why—but she did genuinely just want to help. It gave her purpose. It helped lift the guilt off of her shoulders, and it helped build the blockade in her mind.

She couldn’t heal what was weighing down on Wraith, but she could extend a hand. A lifeline.

They drank in silence some more, and when Ajay was halfway done with her tea, Wraith drained the dregs of her own before sliding off of her seat and putting the glass in the sink. She filled the glass up with water so it wouldn’t stain, but didn’t put it in the dishwasher like she was supposed to. 

“Dishwasher’s done,” Wraith said, as if reading her mind. “And it’s not my turn to put the dishes up. It’s Pathfinder’s.”

“I didn’t say anything, ghost."

“I know.” Wraith stalked past her, and Ajay thought that that was the last of their conversation for the night, but the older woman suddenly paused in the doorway, shoulders hunched. After a while, she said quietly, “Thanks. For trying.”

Blinking in surprise, Ajay said, “You’re welcome.”

“And I like my tea sweet.” She took another step out the door. “For future reference.”

Ajay blinked, and in a flash of blue light, Wraith was gone.


End file.
